It's official. Dismissed as a silly rumour by many, Nokia and Micorsoft have just announced a very comprehensive partnership in which Windows Phone 7 will become Nokia's prime smartphone platform. It goes a lot deeper than that, though. Update:Qt will not be available for Windows Phone 7. Qt will remain the development platform for MeeGo and Symbian. Update II: During its Capital Market Day event, Elop confirmed Nokia will not make a comprehensive MeeGo product line. It will be a platform to learn from, but it won't become a competitive platform. Update III: Android was not an option because it would be difficult to differentiate there. Update IV: There will be 'substantial reductions in employment' in Finland and around the world. Also, before I forget, thanks Engadget for the live-blogging where I get this stuff from!

So open source can't stand on its own two feet without money pouring in from businesses?

Sometimes people talk about the market like if it was made from parts that compete and the one that sells the best product for mankind wins, all without using things like...
- millions of dollars in marketing to make people buy a product and not the other.
- planned obsolescence and other unclear ways to earn the biggest quantity of money in long term.
- meetings with stakeholders where the target is "getting money now" (and in the forthcoming years we'll see).
- deals with computer sellers which also go for their own interests and not for the interests of the others.
- deals with carriers, to include some features (and not include others).
- etc.